Life By Lindsey Rae

Yesterday I went up to our apartment Christmas party to get myself some free food. I always appreciate anything free. I guess that's why we pay the big bucks to live here. So we can get "free" food once a year. While I was there, I did see my neighbor, George, who is the elderly guy that lives in my building whom I mentioned a few weeks ago. Last time I saw him he was being carried away in an ambulance, and I hadn't seen him since, so I wasn't sure if he made it or not. But, I saw him yesterday and he told me that he had just spent nine days in the hospital from a staph infection. He didn't looks so good. He also seemed to have his speech slightly slurred, so I was wondering if maybe there was something else wrong with him. I didn't talk to him very much though because he said he had to get going so he could "talk to all the other pretty girls." And then he ran over my foot with his wheel chair.
As it turns out, tonight there was once again an ambulance, fire truck and two police cars that were by our building, I think come to take George back to the hospital. It's too bad.

Tonight was another free supper with Jerrod's work party. It was at the Opryland hotel once again this year. They did have a thing where they had a photographer taking pictures of everyone to give as a memento and you could pick up the printed picture after a few minutes. After much persuasion I was able to convince Jerrod to take a picture with me. Unfortunately, we both didn't think we looked good in it and now I am afraid I will never have any hope of getting Jerrod to take a picture again. Seriously, it's a concern. I don't know why it has to be so difficult, but it is.
When we were leaving the party, I saw my friend, Manami, working at the front desk of the hotel. I hadn't seen her in awhile and so I was really happy to run into her. I know she has been working there a lot, but hopefully when she has a day off I can get together with her again soon.
(Manami is from Japan and has done translations for my Japanese songs for me.)

Speaking of food, we also bought our fridge today. This is the one we got, excpet in black.It's an expensive little purchase, but it seems to be a necessary one. We got a Samsung with french doors.We were going to get the side-by-side originally, but decided on this one because there is more room for bigger things with French doors. Like, you can't really fit a large pizza box in the side-by-side. Although, I do prefer the side-by-side because it has the water dispenser on the outside of the door (along with lots of blue glowing lights). Ours does have the water filter/dispenser, but it's inside. Not as convenient for someone who drinks water all day like me, but I guess unless you have endless funds and can get your own custom made refrigerator, none will be absolutely perfect. You just have to balance the pros and cons with these sort of things.

In my appartment complex, I had 4 people there used to talk to around here and it seems they are all disappearing.
First there was Mari; who was my good friend. She is Japanese and lived here until May before she moved back to Japan. We used to hang out quite often and she made me lunch and I liked that a lot because she was a good cook. I really miss having not having a Japanese friend near me.
The other three people I just talked to. One I don't even know her name, but I know she had a pug dog named Coach...I guess mostly I just liked to see Coach. But now Coach moved away.
The other was a girl who lived next door to me and has now moved also. I liked her because she liked my art and always came over to me when I was working on projects to tell me she was jealous of my creativity and that I inspired her to make a scrapbook, so that was nice. And finally, I talk to George, who is an elderly guy who seems to not be in good health. He has a motorized wheelchair and he zooms and I mean zooms around on that thing; driving up and down the street several times a day. For exercise he says. (I find that so funny because, obviously, it's the chair, not him, that's doing the moving.) He carries an oxygen tank with him as he zooms around. Funny thing was that I always saw him so often. Even when I was going over Vanderbilt, on the other side of town. As it turned out, we had the same physical therapist. Anyway, tonight a firetruck and ambulance came and took George away. So, I hope he will be ok. They weren't moving too fast though, so I was a little worried that maybe he had passed away after they got there. But, we saw they hook an IV up through the ambulance window and Jerrod said that was a good sign. So, hopefully he will come back and I will see him zooming around again. I'm a little worried about him now.

Last week, I had a special day where I was able to meet up with one of my friends that I knew from living in Osaka. My friend Wakana and her husband are living in the US right now, while he goes to grad school in Indiana and so they came for an overnight trip to Nashville and also brought her parents, who were visting from Japan.
We went to a coffee shop in the hotel they were staying at and were able to sit and chat for about 2 and a half hours. It was so fun to be able to see someone from Japan here in Nashville. We hadn't seen each other for about 5 years, so it was a nice little reunion and so nice to be able to talk about so many different things that have happened in life since we last met.

It amazes me sometimes how small the world really is and how you can unexpectedly end up meeting people from so far away, so close to home.

(First picture: Wakana and I at the live house in Osaka, 2002. Second Picture: Wakana and I in Nashville, 2007.)

This past Saturday night we were able to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Concert in Nashville. Jerrod and I went and took Jerrod's friend from work and two other people we know who are voice instructors who Jerrod does computer work for. We had dinner first and then walked downtown to the Gaylord Entertainment Center, where they had the concert. This was the first time the Choir has been to Nashville in over 30 years, so at church, they were really encouraging everyone to go and to tell our friends from outside of church about it too and bring them. I was initially disappointed when I heard that they would do the performance here. There are so many great places in Nashville that would house this type of performance so much better...places that are truly designed for the arts, but the Gaylord is the Nashville Predetors home and other sports and then used for concerts for the big, loud, pop/country type artists. So, I wished that they were going to be somewhere fit for classical type music. I guess maybe either the other places were booked too far in advance or maybe they just wanted to get the biggest place possible so that there would be enough room for as many as could make it.

Anyway, back to the choir. It was really, really good. The only time I could remember hearing them in person, at least in recent years, was about 6 years ago when I went to General Conference with some of my high school friends in Salt Lake. I remember I was blown away by how truly good it was to hear them live. This time was no exception (other than the fact that the sound could have been fuller in a different venue...but enough of that). They started off with the National Anthem. (No not mine...but thoese Americans) and really, it moved me and brought tears to my eyes to be able to hear that sung so well, so close to independence day and feel the spirit tell me that we trully are blessed to be living where we are right now.

They did some really cool pieces; folk songs from other lands that were just so right on. Everyone loved it. I loved the classical peices they did: works by Mozart, Verdi, Rochmoniof. And of course loved it when they sang a couple of arrangememts I had sung before in my own choir, so I knew all the parts; that was fun.
It made me want to just get up and sing...want to be a part of a good group again. Not that I have ever been in a group that good, but I have had some good choir friends and it's just a good feeling to make good music. I miss that and would like to get involved again, but it's difficult to do that when you are not in school.

Anyway, to end, it was a great concert. I think there was a sense of peace and warmness among everyone who attended. I think that the spirit was strong. Witnessing that all this beautiful music, even if it wasn't religous music, it was good and righteous and it testified of the Lord.